Rodizio Grill - Denver

While in Denver recently for the CEDIA Expo, we decided to go out for dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. A couple of the guys in our company had never been to one before. We ended up going to a place in downtown Denver called Rodizio Grill. (see map)

Pronounced Roe-DEEZ-sho, it's one of the two big Brazilian steakhouses in Denver. (Texas de Brazil being the other - but they weren't too accommodating when we tried to make a reservation over the phone.) Like all Brazilian steakhouses - or churrascarias, Rodizio Grille serves their meats rodiziostyle with the meat grilled on skewers and sliced at your table by gaucho waiters.

And, very similar to other Brazilian steakhouses I've been to, they have an extensive salad bar they want you to graze at so you won't be slamming back so much meat. But, actually, compared to the other Brazilian steakhouses I've been to, the salad bar at Rodizio Grill wasn't all that big.

I sat across from one of my colleagues who had never eaten at a Brazilian steakhouse before. He said, "So, now what?"

I said, "Well, turn over this little thing here (a small wooden object with red on one end and green on the other) so the green side is on top and just sit back and let 'em bring the meat."

They had the regular sirloin and beef tenderloin slices that were very good. Their pork was a little overdone, as was the turkey wrapped in bacon. And they also had some chicken chunks that were OK, but not outstanding. And their lamb was way overdone. It wasn't all that great.

But they had a garlic sirloin - or called Picanha com Alho (Pee-cahn-ya com Al-yo) - that was just outstanding. In fact, it was orgasmic. The garlic was infused throughout the meat - you could literally smell the garlic in the meat even if you were about three feet away from the skewer. Everyone at our table went nuts over it. The only problem is that we'd already eaten a lot of meat before they brought out the garlic steak.

But that didn't stop us - we asked our waiter to keep the garlic sirloin coming. He had the gaucho waiters keep coming around with the beef. Oh, man! Was it delicious!

I sort of got to wondering how they were able to get the garlic to permeate the sirloin beef. When asked, our waiter wouldn't reveal their secret. I guessed they must use highly concentrated garlic oil with olive oil as a marinade and they keep the meat in the marinade for up to 48 hours. It was just awesome.

Actually, as far as the Brazilian steakhouses that I've been to go, Rodizio Grill was pretty fair. Not really outstanding, but good. Well, not until they brought the garlic-laced sirloin out. That made it worth the price of admission.

The service at Rodizio Grill was very good as our waiter was very attentive to getting us refills of drinks and directing which gaucho waiter we wanted to our table. And like all the other Brazilian steakhouses I've been to, I ate way too much. I was miserable for 36 hours after our dinner. The garlic sirloin was just so damn good that I - and others in our group - just gorged. If they had brought the garlic steak first, that would have been the only thing I would have eaten all night. It was that good.

I've got to try and figure out how to make that damned garlic sirloin sometime...